Supreme Court decides on Baby Veronica case

Court gives 1% Cherokee girl to adoptive parents.

Little ‘Baby Veronica’ was adopted for more than two years, but an obscure law preventing the breakup of Native American families had forced her return to her father.

Richard Wolf, USA TODAY 1:01 p.m. EDT June 25, 2013

WASHINGTON — A sharply divided Supreme Court delivered a 3-year-old girl back to her adoptive parents from her biological father Tuesday despite her 1% Cherokee blood.

In doing so, the justices expressed skepticism about a 1978 federal law that’s intended to prevent the breakup of Native American families — but in this case may have created one between father and daughter that barely existed originally.

While four justices from both sides of the ideological spectrum found no way to deny dad his rights under the Indian Child Welfare Act, five others — including Chief Justice John Roberts, an adoptive father — noted that the adoptive parents were the consistently reliable adults in “Baby Veronica’s” life.

That the nation’s highest court was playing King Solomon in a child custody dispute was unusual to begin with. It had jurisdiction because Veronica is 3/256th Cherokee, and the law passed by Congress 35 years ago was intended to prevent the involuntary breakup of Native American families and tribes.

In this case, however, the family that got broken up was the adoptive one in South Carolina, led by Melanie and Matt Capobianco. They had raised Veronica for 27 months after her mother put her up for adoption. The father, Dusten Brown of Oklahoma, only objected to the adoption after the fact.

Brown won custody 18 months ago after county and state courts in South Carolina said the unique federal law protecting Native American families was paramount. The Capobiancos’ attorney, Lisa Blatt, had argued in court that the law was racially discriminatory — in effect banning adoptions of American Indian children by anyone who’s not American Indian.

Associate Justice Samuel Alito ruled for the majority that the law’s ban on breaking up Native American families cannot apply if the family didn’t exist in the first place. He noted the father had not supported the mother during pregnancy, texted his willingness to give up parental rights, and only changed his mind much later.

“In that situation, no Indian family is broken up,” Alito said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented along with liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan and conservative Antonin Scalia, said Veronica now will have her life interrupted for a second time.

“The anguish this case has caused will only be compounded by today’s decision,” she said.

Only once before has the law been tested at the nation’s highest court. Nearly a quarter-century ago, the court took Native American twins from their adoptive family and handed them back to a tribal council in a case that Scalia recently said was the toughest in his 26 years on the bench.

Only Scalia and Justice Anthony Kennedy were on the court for that 1989 case, in which the court ruled 6-3 for an Indian tribe’s custody rights. Scalia sided with the majority, while Kennedy joined the dissent. They were in similar positions this time as the court ruled against the law’s intent — Scalia again on the father’s side, Kennedy with the adoptive couple.

Tribes celebrate opening of $50M fish hatchery

 
 
 
From staff reports
 June 19, 2013

 

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will celebrate the opening of a $50 million salmon hatchery Thursday on the Columbia River.

 

The Chief Joseph Hatchery will raise chinook salmon for subsistence tribal fishing and non-native sport fishing in the nearby towns of Bridgeport and Brewster. The hatchery is adjacent to Chief Joseph Dam, which is as far north as salmon can swim up the main stem Columbia.

 

Each year, the hatchery will release up to 2.9 million salmon smolts, which will swim 500 miles downstream to the ocean. A certain percentage will return as adult fish that can be harvested.

 

John Sirois, chairman of the Colville Tribes, hailed the hatchery as a testimony to the “meaningful work” that can occur when federal, tribal and state governments cooperate on river restoration. In 2008, federal agencies responsible for salmon in the Columbia Basin signed agreements with the tribes and the states, pledging greater cooperation as well as additional funding for salmon projects over 10 years. The completed hatchery is due in part to that accord.

 

The hatchery will help mitigate for the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, which was built without fish ladders. When the dam opened in 1941, it cut off salmon runs to the upper third of the Columbia Basin. Grand Coulee also flooded Kettle Falls, where one of the Northwest’s most prolific salmon fisheries had flourished for 10,000 years.

 

The day’s events are open to the public. The celebration begins with an 8 a.m. first salmon ceremony at the hatchery administration building and concludes at 3 p.m. after tours of the hatchery. The hatchery is located on State Park Golf Course Road east of State Route 17.

 

Click here so view a PDF of Fish Accord Projects of The Confederated Tribes of The Colville Reservation

 

 

Hatchery

 

 

Freeloaders! Crow Creek Boycott Shows State,Town Dependence

Stephanie Woodard, Indian Country Today Media Network

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe’s chairman and casino are boycotting suppliers of goods and services in Chamberlain, South Dakota, following the refusal of the local high school to allow a Sioux honor song at the recent graduation ceremonies. See Crow Creek Sioux Boycott Border-town Businesses Over Banned Honor Song, for more on how the embargo got underway. The boycott has thrown a spotlight on the economic relationship of South Dakota tribes, their border towns and the state as a whole.

South Dakota is fourth in the nation for dependence on Washington for its state budget, with federal dollars paying the tab for nearly half of everything from health care to law enforcement. The state is eighth in the nation for receipt of farm subsidies. South Dakota is a place where individuals and government depend—a lot—on other people’s money. That includes Indian money.

We saw in the first article in this series that the dearth of businesses on many reservations means residents looking for anything from groceries to home repair spend their money in border towns. Nick Tilson, of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, in Sharps Corner, South Dakota, calls the border town–reservation symbiosis “a parasite-host” relationship.

Shopping is just the beginning. In his book The Rights of Indians and Tribes, attorney Steven Pevar cites several academic research papers on tribes’ shares of their states’ economies. One study found that from 1979 to 2002 Wyoming received $283 million more in taxes from one Indian nation’s mineral production than it returned in services and other funding. In another paper Pevar describes, economist Steven Peterson determined in 2009 that five Idaho tribes together contributed nearly copy billion in economic activity to the state, while producing nearly $25 million in state and local taxes.

Dr. Malia Villegas, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq and policy research center director of the National Congress of American Indians, noted additional studies revealing that tribes and tribal entities are economic engines in California, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington, among others.

Gaming at casinos, such as the Crow Creek’s Lode Star Casino and many others, is the source of much tribal money. The National Indian Gaming Association has published nationwide figures for 2009: $26 billion in gross revenues; $3.2 billion for associated expenditures such as entertainment and lodging; $9.4 billion in federal taxes and other payments; and $2.4 billion for state taxes and other payments. Indian gaming’s job creation was substantial—628,000 jobs for American Indians and others, said NIGA.

In Connecticut, according to Pevar, a 2005 study calculated that tribal casinos created 65,000 jobs and contributed copy billion to the state budget, while rescuing the deteriorating economy of the southeastern portion of the state.

Casinos are not the only reservation employers; non-Indians as well as Indians work at additional enterprises, tribal departments, nonprofits and schools. The many powwows and other Native events generate even more economic activity. The United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota, reckoned in 2011 that its annual powwow had a direct contribution to the local economy of $4.7 million (excluding taxes and other associated impacts). Also that year, Alaska television station KTVA reported that the Alaska Federation of Natives meeting was Anchorage’s biggest convention, bringing in $7.2 million in spending on hotels and more, according to the city’s convention and visitor’s bureau.

We must not forget leasing, said Native American Rights Fund attorney Brett Lee Shelton, who is Oglala Lakota. He noted that farmers, ranchers, mining operations, oil companies and many more individuals and businesses lease Indian land—benefitting from access to tribal resources, as well as from the bargain-basement prices the Bureau of Indian Affairs sometimes charges.

The United States has a long history of valuing Indian resources at below-market rates when it leases or sells those resources to outsiders, according to Shelton. “This is a huge drain on Indian economies and is essentially a taking of resources that hadn’t yet been taken in the treaty-making process. If you wanted to design a system to keep Indian landowners poor, you would use exactly this sort of trick.”

In 2011, Indian owners of 42,000 acres of allotments on the Fort Berthold Reservation, in North Dakota’s Bakken oil-producing region, sued the U.S. government. The allottees alleged that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for leasing Indian land in the “best interests” of its owners, approved leases for as little as copy10 per acre. The suit charges that the leases were then “flipped” for as much as copy0,000 per acre. The lawsuit is still before the courts. (Related story: Beckoning the Bakken: Will the oil Boom Reach Montana’s Impoverished Fort Peck Tribes?)

At Crow Creek, Sazue and a forward-thinking tribal council have their eyes on a better economic future for their people. Recently, the group has announced an innovative home-construction program that trains youngsters in building trades while producing homes for tribal members, the development of a business incubator, participation in a wind power deal announced at the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative America, and farmers markets and healthy food initiatives throughout the reservation.

Sazue continues to pursue the idea of an on-reservation bank. He would not provide further details about the talks involved, other than to say a local bank would provide enduring benefits. “With a bank, we would keep as much of our economy here as possible,” he said. “It would be very good for us.”

This article is part of a series appearing this week about Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, the boycott of a South Dakota border town and ways the tribe is addressing its economic issues through innovative business-formation and housing programs.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/25/freeloaders-crow-creek-boycott-shows-statetown-dependence-150074

Paula Deen’s Niggers vs. Dan Snyder’s Redskins: What’s the Difference?

John F. Banzhaf III, Indian Country Today Media Network

Celebrity chef Paula Deen admits that she used the word nigger “a very long time” ago in strictly private conversations, and she, like so many others, is immediately banned from broadcasting, but team owner Dan Snyder is not only responsible for the repeated use of the word “redskins” on hundreds of radio and TV stations, but is so proud of it that he publicly vows he will “never” change the team’s name. Why? What’s different?

Deen is certainly not alone. Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder was ousted over a few ill-chosen stereotyped remarks about black athletes. Don Imus was suspended for using the racially charged term “nappy.” Pat Buchanan was fired by MSNBC because of ideas – not offensive words – expressed in a book, but not on the air. Juan Williams, a minority himself, was fired by NPR for admitting some trepidation when he saw people in Muslim garb boarding airplanes. An ESPN reporter was fired for using the well known phrase “chink in the armor” in connection with Asian American athlete Jeremy Lin.

In connective with the Lin firing, WRC-TV anchor Jim Vance – a long-time friend and supporter of the football team – said on the air: “What I find curious is how some people I’ve talked to are offended by a derogatory term for Asians, but not by the word redskin. Folks, redskins is not a term of endearment, any more than the N word or any other racial or ethnic slur. From its inception and inclusion in our language, it was meant to be an insult.”

Yet Snyder is proud to continue using a word which three judges found to be “a derogatory term of reference for Native Americans” and tends to bring them “into contempt or disrepute”; which the D.C. Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments condemned as “demeaning and dehumanizing”; which both chairmen of the congressional Native American Caucus, and other members of Congress, blasted as “offensive epithets,” “disparaging to Native Americans,” and “racial slurs”; which several states have found too offensive to be permitted to be used on personalized vehicle license plates; and which has been denounced and condemned as the most racist of all terms relating to Indians – the R-word is to them what the N-word is to Blacks – by dozens of leading organizations representing American Indians.

Recently, the former chairman of the FCC, several former commissioners, and other broadcasting law experts concluded that “Redskins” is an “unequivocal racial slur,” and warned that its deliberate, repeated and unnecessary use by broadcasters may no longer serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” As the public interest law professor who first developed the idea of using broadcasting law as a weapon against this racist word, based upon my earlier success in challenging the racist policies of some major DC-area TV stations, I agree. This could jeopardize the licenses of stations which continue to repeatedly use the term on the air.

The broadcasting law experts likened the use of the term to “obscene pornographic language on live television,” and to broadcasting the names of teams like the “Blackskins” or the “Mandingoes.” They concluded that “[i]t is inappropriate for broadcasters to use racial epithets as part of normal, everyday reporting. Thankfully, one does not hear the ‘n’ word on nightly newscasts.”

Now several media outlets are even asking whether team owner Dan Snyder is paying spin master Frank Luntz “to spin his team’s name,” and predicting that such an attempt “will not end well.” Another asked more bluntly: “Is Dan Snyder Secretly Maneuvering to Change Redskins Name?”

On still another front, some members of Congress are pressing Snyder to change the name of the team or they will revoke his federal trademarks, and the D.C. City Council is preparing a resolution which will reportedly call upon DC-area stations to cease using the racist term on the air. This would make it more difficult for stations to defend themselves against a petition opposing the renewal of their broadcasting licenses, since stations must first assess community concerns and then respond to them.

Some defenders of the name have argued that, while the term “redskins” may be racist and derogatory when addressed to or used to refer to persons of a specific heritage, it is not racist or derogatory – and therefore may properly be used on the air by broadcasters – when it refers to the name of an entity such as a team, group, or organization.

But, for example, the complete and proper name of the former musical group Niggaz Wit Attitudes was never said on the air, even by black stations, and even though the N-word was used here to refer to a group and not in any racial or derogatory sense, and the group was made up of African Americans who freely chose the word “Niggaz” to describe and express themselves. In contrast, Indians are not on Snyder’s football team, and did not choose the name “Redskins” for themselves.

It has also been argued that, if they cannot use the word “Redskins” on the air, radio and TV stations cannot report the news, and that their freedom of speech, and the right of fans to keep up to date about the team, would be unduly restricted. But broadcasters certainly remain free to report all the news and developments about the team and its players by simply using readily-available non-offensive alternative words. For example, one can say “DC beat Dallas 28-0” or “Washington bested Philadelphia” or “Dan Snyder’s team is in trouble with too many injuries,” etc.

Indeed, some broadcasters, as well as some newspapers, have announced that they will no longer use the word “Redskins” in their reporting because it is racially offensive. In this regard, remember that broadcasters had no problems playing the music of, interviewing, or reporting news about the former musical group Niggaz Wit Attitudes, simply by referring to them as NWA, and not by the full and proper name they chose for themselves.

For those who might still doubt that “Redskins” is a derogatory racist term, the Huffington Post published what it termed my “eyebrows-raising challenge”: “walk into a bar frequented by Indians and loudly ask: ‘How are all you redskins doing tonight’.”

John F. Banzhaf III is a law professor at George Washington University Law School and a practitioner of public interest law.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/24/paula-deens-niggers-vs-dan-snyders-redskins-whats-difference

E-retailer Cabinethardware.org Creates ‘Knobs For Navajos’

Pauline Whitesinger, Navajo Elder
Pauline Whitesinger, Navajo Elder

Fund Will Help Native Americans Rebuild

Black Mesa, ARIZON (PRWEB) June 25, 2013

Like many Native Americans, Navajo Elder Pauline Whitesinger lives in squalor. As a member of the Navajo nation, she is also part of America’s largest and poorest tribe who were prohibited from building for 43 years under federal legislation known as the Bennett Freeze. Although the ban was lifted in 2009, the recent recession dried up all sources of federal funding.

Rebuilding could begin soon for Elder Whitesinger, thanks to funding from Knobs for Navajos, a new crowdfunded campaign created by Cabinethardware.org.

“The abysmal living conditions of the Navajo community were brought to our attention through the story of Pauline Whitesinger and we were moved to help,” explains Cabinethardware.org founder David Mason. “We created Knobs for Navajos with the goal of raising $10,000 to assist local non-profits help families affected by The Bennett Freeze. Knobs for Navajos chose Elder Whitesinger as its first grant recipient. If successful, she will be able to build her own hogan, the traditional Navajo dwelling, on her native land.”

Cabinethardware.org is turning the traditional business model on its head by merging the crowdfunding concept with its successful e-commerce site, Kitchen-Cabinet-Hardware.com. This means that anyone who shops on its site can designate 10 percent of their total purchase to a featured project. The project must receive 100 or more votes to qualify for assistance.

“We are a home improvement site, so it’s only natural that the way we give back is to help those in need improve their homes. By shopping on our site, you can renovate your own home and at the same time help others at no additional cost to you,” Mason continues. “We believe in doing good for others while you’re doing good for yourself.”

To learn more and to vote for the Knobs for Navajos project visit http://www.cabinethardware.org/relief-efforts/knobs-for-navajos.

About CabinetHardware.org
CabinetHardware.org is an e-tailer home improvement store that sells top brands of cabinet knobs and pulls, kitchen and bathroom décor, accessories and home organizers. It is a division of Tail of the Lion, Inc., which operates on the ancient principle that it is ‘better to be a tail to lions than a head to foxes.’ The lion represents the great, inspiring and principled leaders of our times. As a small business, we strive to be amongst them. We run a fun, family-friendly business where honest values are our priority.

Uprising in Brazil: An extraordinary moment for change

0-1-0-protest-nc2Nayanda Fernandez, Upside Down World

Emerging as a complete surprise, the wave of massive demonstrations Brazil has been experiencing is undoubtedly the most serious movement of popular protests in the country since the dictatorship years. On June 10th, 2013, the first peaceful demonstration took place in São Paulo, near one of the main business streets, Avenida Paulista.  After mobile phone videos spread across the internet, showing clear evidence of the violent repression of the protest by the military police, masses of people hit the streets of São Paulo in a cry for their right to demonstrate.

For the first time, young Brazilians saw the military police, renowned for violent actions around the poorer or isolated areas, attacking and arresting hundreds of economically privileged citizens. Despite the efforts from the largely conservative national media to play down the violent actions, a number of key videos were recorded in different areas of the city on the 13th of June and virally spread through social media. These videos showed how groups of protesters chanting for “no violence” were indiscriminately attacked by the extensive use of tear gas, rubber bullets, batons and pepper spray. Victims of the repression included journalists shot at head level and in their eyes.

The acts were mainly organized by ‘Movimento Passe Livre’ (Free Fare Movement), a group campaigning against public transport fare rises since 2005 and struggling for the right to ‘free fares’ for all citizens to travel on public transport in Brazil. A similar measure was first proposed in 1990 by the former São Paulo PT mayor, Luiza Erundina, who had to face the so-called ‘bus mafia’ as well as a chain of reactions from big businessmen from the construction and retail sectors in the city.

The first protests, in São Paulo, marked the beginning of what Marilena Chauí, philosopher and retired lecturer at University of São Paulo (USP) affirms to be a ‘very important political moment’ for the development of Brazilian democracy.  On June 18th, the streets of various cities were taken over by crowds, and that same evening the National Congress building in Brasilia was surrounded by protesters, taking a combination of artistic and political action.

“Oscar Niemeyer [a well-known Brazilian architect and socialist] would have been so proud last night! The unity of art and political action! His beautiful congress building decorated and enhanced by a new generation of radicals on the roof, demanding change, an end to corruption and no more collaboration with the greedy FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) Mafia,” wrote Andrew Jennings in A Pública.

The images of the police repression in São Paulo seem to have represented the last straw for the over one million people that have taken to the streets and mobilized around the country. However, at the same time, protesters have been similarly repressed in Brasilia, Fortaleza and Minas Gerais outside the football stadiums where the Confederation Cup matches have taken place.

The protesters’ indignation around the stadiums are based in part on the exorbitant ticket prices – which means that ordinary Brazilians will not be able to attend the events. People are also outraged at the use of the billions of public funds for the cost of stadiums and facilities. According to one calculation, this cost is the equivalent of the R$38 million federal education budget and, to a lesser extent, the countless cases of human rights violations against populations living near the stadiums or other sports facilities, who have been evicted, often violently, to make away for the ‘improvements.’

Natalia Viana, director of A Pública, the main center for investigation and independent journalism in Brazil, declared in a recent interview with the Chilean outlet America Economía that around 170,000 people have been at some point under risk of losing their homes because they are in the way of the World Cup or the Olympic projects, stadiums, and highways. “The city [mainly Rio de Janeiro, but other areas have also been affected] is being changed in a very authoritarian way, without competent and democratic consultation or negotiation with all communities,” Viana explained. In addition, the economic abuses related to those projects have also spread around the country. Rio’s Maracanã stadium alone has gone through three sets of major refurbishment works in the last 15 years, at a total cost of around US$700 million, and the Brasilia stadium is costing about US$ 270 million, one of the most expensive of the six being built ahead of the World Cup warm-up tournament.

Even though both the Governor of São Paulo state, Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB), and the Mayor of São Paulo city, Fernando Haddad (PT), announced on June 19th the reduction of the public transport fares, the next day activists in 322 cities and 22 capitals were mobilized around the country.

On June 21st, the president Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was tortured under Brazil’s long military dictatorship, made a televised 10-minute appearance backing the right to peaceful protest but sharply condemning violence, vandalism and looting from the protesters.  In contrast, Rousseff notably ignored the police’s violent action during the first days of protests in São Paulo, or around the stadium in Brasilia and other capitals. She even ignored previous and, unfortunately, common-place conflicts such as the constant clashes in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas or with Indigenous people around the Amazon region, conflicts related to soy production and cattle farms in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states. The giant may have woken with these recent protests, as some have claimed, but those on the margins of Brazilian society have never gone to sleep…

A recent opinion poll indicates that Brazil’s Federal government has considerably lost popularity over the last two weeks. According to Gilberto Maringoni, journalist and PhD in history from the University of São Paulo, those numbers do not attest to anything exceptional. However, he alerts, Brazil is currently on the edge of a crisis; even though the levels of consumption and employment are not falling, he affirms, in macro-economical terms, the Brazilian GDP promises to be ‘mediocre’ by the end of the year.

During the years of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula), the previous president, many Brazilians experienced the consumer power for the first time in their family history. Those previously on the edge of the market economy could now buy a TV, a car, a refrigerator, and other basic consumer goods.  However, outside their homes people still find a decaying public service system, high cost and bad quality transport, lack of books, equipment, and motivated teachers at public schools, a very poor health system, and growing levels of violence around the cities.

“Brazil has improved significantly over the last 10 years. However, the environment is still being destroyed, chaos is taking over the cities, there is no sign of agrarian reform, the mainstream media is associated with the Federal government, the financial sector carries on demanding a radical shift towards [neoliberal] economic orthodoxy and Dilma [Rousseff] is wholeheartedly following her creed of privatization,” Gilberto Maringoni wrote recently in Carta Capital.

Many analysts have expressed their hope that this current uprising is a sign of the general public awareness that political change is desperately needed in Brazilian politics. At the same time, people are concerned that 2013 doesn’t end the same way 1968 did in Brazil, when student protests were brutally crushed by the military government. Furthermore,Werneck Vianna, a renowned Brazilian social scientist, said: “If nothing is done in time, this movement could end in a very bad way. […] young people disenchanted with politics, radicalized and who will look for the wrong ways to solve their problems.”

The extraordinary demonstrations in Brazil, which have practically taken over all big cities, and are active in many in rural areas, have been showing to the Brazilians, and to those interested to learn about this Latin American giant, the complexity of its political condition. After numerous days of protesting, many people still did not know exactly why they were protesting.  This lack of focus and political maturity is just a symptom of the distance between the population and Brazilian politics.

In a letter signed by over 30 Brazilian social movements to president Dilma Roussef, these groups analyze the recent mobilizations as a very positive step in a process of political education of the mostly young demonstrators. It is, they affirm, a cry of anger from people who have been historically alienated from the political life of Brazil, and who tend to think of politics as something damaging to society. The letter explains that this movement will likely lead youth to realize the desperate need to confront the powerful in Brazil, demanding economic equality and reforms, and greater access to healthcare, education, land, culture, media and political spaces.  In the letter, the social movement groups also affirm that the conservative sectors of the society are trying to co-opt the demonstrations and spin their meaning to the media.

Connected through the internet and different social media platforms, people around Brazil and abroad have also been protesting in solidarity with Brazil, and tying the protests there to other mobilizations around the world. Both Turkish and Brazilian activists, (who have been attacked by the same brand of tear gas), have been sharing much of their experiences online, such as how to make D.I.Y. masks against tear gas, and sharing images of protests signs in support of their counterparts across the world. Solidarity demonstrations have also been organized in different cities around Europe and the US, where we could see both Turkish and Brazilian flags raised.

Eliane Brum, a Brazilian journalist, writer and documentary maker, has recently recalled the words of the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, recorded on video around two years ago during the widespread protests in Spanish against economic austerity measures. Galeano’s message to the young people who went to the streets of Barcelona, Madrid and other cities in the country was translated into many languages and shared extensively online: “This shitty world is pregnant with another one.” Just like Brum, many people are hoping Galeano is correct, and that we can all exist in another kind of world, where there is space for life.

The Bison Miracle: New Museum Tells Story of a Genocide Thwarted

Indian Country Today Media Network

Despite efforts by the U.S. government to exterminate the bison as a way to exterminate the Indian, the bison persists, if fragily. Now, a museum devoted to the great animal is open in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The Museum of the American Bison and Great Plains Center is dedicated to telling one of the most captivating stories in our nation’s history – the amazing survival of the American bison. While a sad saga of greed and profiteering that changed the lives and traditions of people over a century ago, the story of the bison today is one of hope and resiliency.

The Museum of the American Bison is a non-profit organization run by a volunteer Board of Directors consisting of community members with history and wildlife conservation backgrounds.The museum charges no admission fee.

For more information on the museum, go to BisonMuseum.org.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/24/bison-miracle-new-museum-tells-story-genocide-thwarted-150069

Hundreds of Siksika First Nation homes lost to flood

Anger and despair as disaster strikes small community

John Rieti, CBC News

As the truck rattles to a stop, Siksika Chief Fred Rabbit Carrier looks out over the flooded community of Chicago Bridge where houses sit amid floodwater like islands.

Severe flooding has forced around 1,000 Siksika people from their homes on the Alberta reserve, a large portion of which hugs a stretch of the Bow River about 100 kilometres east of Calgary. The disaster has been unfolding there since Friday, when the river poured over its banks and covered some areas with over a metre of floodwater.

“How are we going to recover from all of this is what went through my thoughts,” Chief Rabbit Carrier told CBC News on Sunday.

“There’s a sense of hopelessness… as a leader you have to overcome that and put emotions aside and start working toward the recovery.”

Chief Rabbit Carrier said the community is still in a state of emergency. The reserve’s recreation centre has been turned into a shelter where a list of items — baby formula, diapers, towels, blankets and non-perishable food — are in high demand. The phone in the centre’s main office rings constantly.

“We’ve been very fortunate that we have not lost anybody,” Chief Rabbit Carrier said.

In the lobby, a group of volunteers hoping to rescue animals trapped in the flood gets organized. They’ve already saved several animals, but plenty of barn animals and pets alike have perished. “If it has a pulse, we’ll save it,” one volunteer said.

First Nation feels forgotten

Sally Fox, who has lived on the Siksika reserve for her entire life, refused to go to the emergency shelter, opting instead to sit at a makeshift campsite on the hill overlooking her flooded blue house.

Chicago Bridge resident Sally Fox set up a makeshift camp overlooking her flooded home where she's been since Friday.

Chicago Bridge resident Sally Fox set up a makeshift camp overlooking her flooded home where she’s been since Friday. (John Rieti/CBC)

 

“I hope the house is OK,” Fox said, “but I fear the worst.”

As she looks out, her husband and grandson trudge up the flooded front driveway. It’s the first time since Friday the water’s been low enough in her community of Chicago Bridge to survey the extent of the damage.

While Fox is stoic about the fate of her house, she’s furious with the lack of media coverage.

“It was all about the Saddledome, they forgot about us,” Fox said.

Chief Rabbit Carrier, while pleased by the presence of several news crews on Saturday, agrees. “We had to beg for coverage,” he said.

People on the reserve are “angry” he said, that the media focused so heavily on Calgary’s clean-up while people in Siksika were fighting to save their homes.

The message today, expressed clearly by everyone here is this: Siksika needs help.

Homes lost

In Little Washington, there’s almost a kilometre-wide swath of flowing water still covering the community. Residents say it could be weeks before the community is dry. Even then, most of the 45 houses here likely won’t be saved.

Some 45 homes in the community of Little Washington have been severely damaged.

Some 45 homes in the community of Little Washington have been severely damaged. (John Rieti/CBC)

 

Ratford Black Rider lost his house, three cars and a school bus in the flood.

“The water came in so fast, we only had less than half an hour to get what we can out,” he said.

The four Siksika communities — a popular golf resort on the reserve was also destroyed — hit hardest all sit on low-lying land, nestled beneath foothills. Little Washington residents checking on their homes said there has been some flooding in the past, but it’s never been more than a little water in the basement — not even during the major floods of 2005.

Today the water is still moving quickly, gushing over a cracked Little Washington road on its way toward Medicine Hat.

Chief Rabbit Carrier says he hopes his community can get into “recovery mode” in the next 24 hours. But he said he hopes when the water subsides, people don’t forget about Siksika.

Skokomish Tribe upgrades water quality lab

Charlene Nelson, Shoalwater Bay Tribe chair and Guy Miller, Skokomish Tribe chairman, finalize the Skokomish Tribe’s purchase of water quality lab equipment from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe.
Charlene Nelson, Shoalwater Bay Tribe chair and Guy Miller, Skokomish Tribe chairman, finalize the Skokomish Tribe’s purchase of water quality lab equipment from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe.

Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

The Skokomish Tribe is upgrading its water quality lab to a state-of-the-art facility.

The tribe recently purchased high-end water quality lab equipment from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe to conduct more sophisticated work, such as looking for cancer-causing compounds.

“It’s a major deal for Hood Canal,” said Ron Figlar Barnes, the Skokomish Tribe’s EPA coordinator. “It’s an opportunity for tribes within Hood Canal and Puget Sound to have close access to this type of equipment and help everyone. We’re bringing high-end water quality equipment to a more centrally located area.”

The Shoalwater Tribe used the equipment to research toxins causing reproductive issues with its tribal members. The tribe tested a variety of sources, including water, soil, tissue, marine animals and finfish, looking for compounds that are toxic, such as flame retardants and PCBs.

“We haven’t had a need for it lately though, so now we’re able to pass it on to someone else,” said Gary Burns, director of Shoalwater Bay Tribe’s environmental program.

Without the new equipment, the Skokomish Tribe could test water samples only for dissolved oxygen, e.coli, phosphorus, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia  The tests help alert the tribe to any potential water quality problem in the Skokomish River and potentially Hood Canal. The tribe still has to send off water samples to be tested for fecal coliform but hopes to do it in-house in the future.

“Once the advanced lab is set up, which is expected to be within a year, the tribe will be able to expand testing to include fish and shellfish tissue,” said Figlar Barnes.

“We’re not going to limit ourselves,” said Guy Miller , the Skokomish Tribe Chairman. “We’re going to use it in every way we can to help our people, our community and our natural resources.”

Washington High School Drops Redskins Mascot

Indian Country Today Media Network

Despite widespread community support for keeping the name, Port Townsend High School in Port Townsend, Washington will drop its Redskins name and mascot. The Port Townsend School Board voted unanimously last night to make the change, according to the Associated Press.

The school board’s decision was made on the recommendation of a study group that found that the name was offensive to Native Americans and  it should be retired. But this didn’t sit well with the nearly 300 people in attendance last night, with many routinely cheering speakers who opposed the name change and booing those who took an opposing view, reports the Peninsula Daily News.

With Port Townsend’s decision, only one high school in Washington state still uses Redskins as its mascot, Wellpinit, according to the Capital News Service’s The Other Redskins study.

Students and community members will select a new mascot and nickname for Port Townsend High.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/25/washington-high-school-drops-redskins-mascot-150094